Shooting ducks on the water? :)

I was out last week and I can tell you from the number of times I shot at cripples using #3 shot that it is damn hard to kill a duck on the water ujless they are really close or you get a lucky pellet in the head.
 
MD said:
I was out last week and I can tell you from the number of times I shot at cripples using #3 shot that it is damn hard to kill a duck on the water ujless they are really close or you get a lucky pellet in the head.
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If you were hunting divers, we used to bring 7 1/2 to finish them off, worked like a charm!
 
MD said:
Pintails and widgies. Yes, #3 shot is my go to decoying shell, but doesn't seem to work in high wind. See my new post below.
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#3 is my go to for decoying birds, but we use #5 or #6 for cripples... you need a denser pattern for swatting heads... you can go through half a box of steel #3's trying to finish a wounded diver.
 
bearkilr said:
Pretty common stuff. Federal Premium copper plated 3" 1 7/8 oz. Also came in 1 5/8 oz. It actually killed birds, not cripple them like steel, but that's a different topic altogether. :)
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I know the stuff well, I was just teasing you. I was in a small sporting good's store one time in Biwabik, MN around 1990. The guy who owned the store recognized I was a Canadian "eh" and asked if I hunted waterfowl. I said yes and he told me he had a bunch of 3" Federal Premium lead loads he could not move as they were mandated to non-toxic shot. Canada was not yet mandated to non-toxic shot. He gave me a price I could not refuse and I left his store with the last 38 boxes he had. There was quite a number of 1 7/8 oz loads which I sold to guys at the club when I got home. I recouped all my money and had 15 boxes of 1 5/8 oz left for myself. The 1 7/8 were just a little too hard on the shoulder since I shot and still shoot a 101 weighing in at 7 pounds. Those 1 5/8 oz loads were great medicine on Canada Geese!
 
I used to go there to a plant that made ammonium nitrate explosive (we called it Prills). It is used for blasting rock. We used to pick up there and deliver it to the parent company in Sudbury for use underground at Inco or take loads directly to the gold mines at Hemlo back when Hemlo was a place a guy could get wealthy!! Lol
The plant in Biwabik had closed its doors and a drilling company named Consbec bought it, re-opened the plant and started manufacturing and selling and using their own product rather than buy from DuPont in North Bay whowe also hauled for. I covered alot of ground up your way back then. Red Lake, Balmertown, Sioux Lookout, Pickle Lake, little private pits near Kenora and Dryden etc all the way as far west as Salmon Arm, B.C and south into Idaho and as far north as Lesser Slave Lake, Rabbit Lake Sk, Leaf Rapids MB etc
 
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Wow, I worked for Noranda in the late 80's, spent a lot of time based out of Hemlo, and have been in exploration ever since. I know the nitrates all too well lol.

Small world!!
 
I did that job from 88-91 until gold prices started to drop and the companies started to nickel and dime us. Until then gold prices had been good so we had been very busy and covered alot of ground. We never delivered east of North Bay but we would go to Brownsburg, QC often to pick up blasting caps and detonating cord then start working our way west making multiple drops along the way to Salmon Arm. Biwabik became a regular weekly back haul whenever we returned from the west and we would either take the product to Hemlo on the way home or to the storage magazines outside of Sudbury(Val Caron if memory serves?). The Biwabik plant was manned by a crew of three only so quite often they didn't have the product ready for the scheduled pick up time so we would drop our trailer off to be loaded and go kick around the area. Being a gun and hunting enthusiast you know where I ended up most times, lol. Saw some interesting landscapes going into the mines, especially the more remote places and saw some amazing wildlife. I landed on the floor of the truck one night between the two seats and jammed up against the shifter when my partner had to lock everything up to avoid a collision on the trans-canada between Regina and Swift current. I got up off the floor to see a herd of 100+ antelope covering the 4 lanes of hwy not 15 yards from the hood of the truck. I was so excited to see that many antelope I couldn't even get pissed off at being ejected from the bunk in a deep sleep!

Cleftwynd, I delivered often to Noranda mines. I cannot recall if Noranda took product from DuPont or Consbec but there was a fellow by the name of Pat who was our contact for Consbec. He was a driller and was a childhood friend of my mothers youngest sister when they growing up in Wawa. Small world at times for sure.
I am sure I was by your door often Hoyt as we used to service most of the mines in and around the Sudbury area as well. I especially liked going up the 144. Go figure? Most truck drivers hated going up the 144 but I looked forward to it. Seeing Moose and bears never got tiring to me and stopping to catch a few brookies now and again was worth getting #### for if my delivery was a few minutes or even hours late! We could always blame Manitoulin Transport for holding us up with their 90km/h policy and not being able to get around them because of a lack of passing lanes and short straight stretches!! ;)
 
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the spank said:
I did that job from 88-91 until gold prices started to drop and the companies started to nickel and dime us. Until then gold prices had been good so we had been very busy and covered alot of ground. We never delivered east of North Bay but we would go to Brownsburg, QC often to pick up blasting caps and detonating cord then start working our way west making multiple drops along the way to Salmon Arm. Biwabik became a regular weekly back haul whenever we returned from the west and we would either take the product to Hemlo on the way home or to the storage magazines outside of Sudbury(Val Caron if memory serves?). The Biwabik plant was manned by a crew of three only so quite often they didn't have the product ready for the scheduled pick up time so we would drop our trailer off to be loaded and go kick around the area. Being a gun and hunting enthusiast you know where I ended up most times, lol. Saw some interesting landscapes going into the mines, especially the more remote places and saw some amazing wildlife. I landed on the floor of the truck one night between the two seats and jammed up against the shifter when my partner had to lock everything up to avoid a collision on the trans-canada between Regina and Swift current. I got up off the floor to see a herd of 100+ antelope covering the 4 lanes of hwy not 15 yards from the hood of the truck. I was so excited to see that many antelope I couldn't even get pissed off at being ejected from the bunk in a deep sleep!
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I love road trips... seeing what is around the next corner, or over the next hill... but I also fall asleep at the wheel... totalled three vehicles back in the early eighties... I have been more diligent since then...
 
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